Attention has recently been given to Business Process Integration (BPI), which combines existing application programs (hereinafter referred to as “applications”) that were operating separately in the same company. Business Process Integration may be defined as an approach to integration that, beyond application integration such as real-time information synchronization and sharing, invokes required internal and external applications or services on the basis of the entire workflow of a business process.
A system resulting from such business process integration can be considered as a chain of job units (activities) to be performed by individuals or a computer. A problem lies in how to monitor the progress of work to check which activity is handling a particular job. This problem is addressed by a Business Activity Monitor (BAM). A Business Activity Monitor visualizes business processes and IT events concerning business operations in order to facilitate early detection of a problem, performance analysis, and improvement and optimization of a business operation.
However, some existing applications (legacy applications) contain processes (implicit processes) that are not managed by a workflow system. In order to manage processes by the workflow system in such an application, the application must be modified to suit the workflow system. For many legacy applications, however, it is difficult to add new functions. In real system integration cases, it is often demanded that legacy systems be integrated and transaction logs in those legacy systems be integrated and displayed without having to modifying the legacy systems.